The Selection: The 7
by Hymn of the Sea
Summary: Arista Green. Caste 7. Selected. Join Arista on her journey in The Selection with Prince Zander, son of America and Maxon. Betrayal, romance, adventure, discovering her father's past, sarcasm, and lots of rebels.
1. Chapter One: The Papers

I wasn't supposed to be in caste seven. I was supposed to have a life full of freedom and grace. I remember the grand hallways, the long dresses, and the heat during the winter. And I remember my dad. My father's face full of warmth and happiness, when he would come home and pick my siblings and me up into her arms, spin us around, and wrestle with us. My mother and him always sneaking a kiss in when they thought we weren't looking. We would cover our eyes and giggle, we knew how much father and mother were in love. And as a little girl I could only dream of the day our very own prince charming would sweep us off our feet.

I remember my father's burnt hands and the roughness of them, charred slightly black. He would come home with ashes on his face on occasion but mother would be right on duty. She would hold a wash cloth to his face and simple sigh as she would gently clean him up. He was a firefighter, chief in charge of Clermont, and the best at his job. He once took down several rebels and extinguished a fire within 10 minutes. (Or so father liked to tell us). He was good at his job and he loved it.

Mother didn't love his job. She always thought it was too dangerous and often you could hear her crying when the nights were long and there was no sign of father. She would listen to reports on the radio hoping that nothing was wrong. Often father just had a lot of paper work to do, being in charge of a lot of men, and meetings to attend with other chiefs from places like Kent and Hansport. You see, mother didn't have a job. She couldn't get a job in caste two. Mother and father fell in love when mother was gardening father's garden. He had just moved out into a bigger house to start his life as the chief and wanted the outside of his house to look just as grand as the inside.

Mother was a humble gardener, a seven in the caste system. And they fell in love. Though the government looked down on their marriage, and highly questioned if something unfavorable happened, they allowed them to be married. And quickly my mother rose to be a two in the caste system. She wasn't gorgeous or entertaining, she couldn't be an MTV spokesperson or a model. And she was to weak and fragile to be a firefighter or anything with the government. So she became a stay at home mom.

We saved money by not hiring gardeners, maids, or anyone else. We took care of ourselves. The only thing that cost us a pretty penny was the children's schooling. My mother wanted us to be home schooled and well trained in music, dance, instruments, and foreign languages. When we were not being schooled we were taught to clean and cook from our mother. We always thought we would be financially secure, even if father lost his job or died. We would be okay.

We didn't plan for father to fall in love with another woman. And we didn't plan for father to take all our money and leave his four children behind.

She was a model, a two in the system. Nobody questioned his decision to leave us. And my father paid for us to disappear. We weren't going to go without a fight, but when you have as much power as my father did then fighting didn't help. Something must have been wrong with him, he must have been drugged! Father would never leave behind mother and his children. Let alone let us starve and become sevens. But he did. I don't know why. Even to this day we haven't seen him. We only heard of his accomplishments over the radio, which for a long time was the only way I could sleep at night. If I knew father was safe and doing his job then everything would be okay. He would come back to us.

But he never did.

So here we are today, my mother and us children working out in a garden on a sunny day. The birds chirped and all seemed well. Though our stomach's growled from the lack of food we still worked hard. Pulling weeds, planting flowers, watering bushes, and much more.

"I don't want to pull another weed ever again!" My little sister, Tonisha, yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Hey! Don't be yelling that. We are privileged to have work." Stanton, my 16 year old brother, whispered in a harsh tone into Tonisha's ear as he dragged her to another weed patch.

"Stanton, don't be so hard on her. She's only seven." My voice came out stern and warning. I was in charge of this job, while my mother was out working for smaller clients. The clients we were currently working for were the kindest we had ever had the honor to work for. They were educators, threes in the caste system. In exchange for gardening their yard and taking care of the grounds they taught Tonisha and Shane, my youngest brother, reading and writing skills.

"When do I get to go learn? It's not fair. Shane gets more time." Tonisha whined and lied in the grass flat on her back, refusing to work anymore. I wanted to do Tonisha's work, except I had the harder job of trimming hedges and planting brand new flowers all along the walk way up to the grand house.

"Tonisha, your brother is younger then you. He needs more-" I tried to explain to her while planting a tulip but suddenly was interrupted by front door swinging wide open and my brother running out to hug me.

"Rissy! Rissy!" Shane yelled at the top of his lungs, full of excitement and joy. His face beamed with enthusiasm as he ran over and grabbed my tanned arm, which held the tulip in it.

"Hey! Hey! Shane! Calm down! Let me put this flower in the ground then you can take me-" Once again I was interrupted but this time it was by a shadow that towered over me. I looked up from the ground to see my client, Grace Monarch, smiling down on me.

I immediately stood up, dropping the flower and made a quick curtsey to her. I acted like she was royalty whenever I was in her presence. To me she was truly the closest thing I had ever met to a princess. Grace is tall, beautiful, raven black hair, with green eyes that sparkled. She was also very kind and intelligent.

"Arista, may I talk to you inside for a moment?" She didn't wait for a response though; she turned and began walking back inside. She expected to me to follow and I did.

I had never really been welcomed inside of their house before. I'm a seven, and even the most kind of three's would never allow such a commoner inside. They had decided to only teach my brother and sister because they couldn't work by themselves and were only 3 and 2 years old when my father left us. They had no education to their names at all.

"Arista. Please sit." True to her name, Grace gracefully sat in a red leather love seat in front of an unlit fireplace. She motioned for me to sit in the direct opposite red leather couch in front of her, separating us was a nice wood coffee table.

"As you most likely know The Selection is sweeping Illéa by storm.King Maxon and Queen America's child, Zander, is quite the amazing person. He has come up with many plans for our country and is seen to be as a very promising king," Grace reached to the side of her seat and pulled out a pink leather bag, searching through her purse she pulled out papers with the royal seal on them, "any female is allowed to enter the selection as long as they are in the appropriate age range, as I am sure you know."

Grace placed the papers onto the coffee table in front of us and looked at me with a very motherly smile, "My children are eligible but have no interest. My twins have both fallen in love with two twins in the entertainment business," She pushed the papers closer to me. I felt like she was hinting at something, "Arista. You are a talented and beautiful girl. A seven has never been Selected before, of course seven's usually aren't pretty or intelligent. You, Arista, are no regular seven. Since you lived thirteen years of your life as a two."

"Wait. Are you saying you want me to enter The Selection?" My voice came out almost in a whisper. Why was she being so nice to me? Why was she handing me the papers to The Selection? I hardly really knew Grace, and she hardly knew me! And the chances of me being selected are next to nothing.

"Arista, I can't explain why I want you to enter. But I need you to." With that Grace placed a fancy fountain pen, an old antique, next to the paper and left the room leaving me with a wink of her eye.

I picked up the pen and began to fill out the paper. I felt compelled too and amused by the idea. I was eligible last year, but sevens were never sent papers to fill out, and I had never wanted to enter. Out of all the girls in Clermont I was not going to be chosen. But it couldn't hurt me and Grace had taken me into her household for me to fill it out. I didn't want to upset her, in case she got deeply offended by me turning down the offer and stopped teaching my brother and sister.

'_Okay. Name, Arista Green. Age, seventeen.' _I began to fill out the form, using a fountain pen was a bit difficult but it did look really nice and fancy on the paper, _'I can play the piano and acoustic guitar,' _Although I haven't actually played much since I was thirteen, on occasion I would be allowed to play instruments at client's houses, _'I can speak Chinese and Russian fluently. My highest education is home schooling by Marissa Ledger. Stopped at age thirteen.' _

I finished filling out the form, signing my name at the bottom beautifully. I then left the paper on the coffee table and proceeded to go back outside to finish my job.

"Arista, come by tomorrow morning to send this." I heard Grace calling from the front door as I went back to my tulips.

What would mother think if she knew? Maybe Grace had already talked to her. If not, well, she never had to know. I wouldn't be selected.


	2. Chapter Two: The Red Seal

"Rissy. What are you thinking about? And what did Lady Grace want?" Shane asked me while I carried him on my back. Tonisha was on Stanton's back and the four of us were heading home for dinner. Right after dinner I had to go to another client's house, another three, and trim a tree and start harvesting some apples.

"Oh I'm just thinking about Grace, actually," I debated for a second if I should tell my siblings what Grace really wanted, but I decided against it, "we were just discussing what we wanted to do to her yard next. She is thinking about remodeling her home and wants to send the plans in to the contractor. But she wants me to review them first before she sends them tomorrow." It was sad how natural lying came to me. It always had been a secret gift of mine. I had been tempted to put that down in the special skills section of The Selection application.

"Oh! Wow. That's wonderful she's including you, Arista." Stanton beamed at me. I think he was hoping if I became a bigger part of Grace's life then maybe we would get paid more.

We neared our little run down home. Our poor brown house had the siding peeling off, the roof had many patch works done on it, and the windows were all cracked with a sheet hanging over them. I walked up to the doorway to open the door. The doorway itself was built a little small, I'm only 5' 6" and I have to duck an inch to get underneath it.

I ran around the small room making airplane noises for Shane, who was still on my back, before I dropped him on worn down brown couch. I knelt down and tickled him until he was in a fit of laughter and yelling at the top of his lungs, "No! I'm going to pee my pants!" I stopped and tucked a piece of his bright blonde hair behind his sunburned ear.

"Shane, didn't you put on any sun protection today?" Shane shook his little head and folded his arms, "I know the stuff is expensive, but mom works hard to get it for us so we don't burn to crisps outside during the summer." I kissed his forehead to show him my love. I was appreciative for Shane, he is only six and he understands a lot about money and our tight situation. He always does things around the house, well as much as he can, just to make the burden lighter on my mother and I. Sometimes, to earn an extra penny or two, he will go out into the street and start singing random songs he heard from our worn down radio. Though he doesn't know all the words people will stop and give him a penny or two, sometimes even a nickel or dime.

"Well isn't it my four lovely children?" I heard my mother's voice ring from the front door. Automatically the four of us came rushing to her, eager to hear of anything happening today. "I brought some food for lunch," Mother paused for a second, "or dinner. Is that what time it is? Did you kids get anything for lunch?"

We all nodded our heads in unison because it was an unspoken agreement between us four. We always told mom we had lunch whenever she forgot to feed us or send food with us to work. Even little Tonisha, who didn't quite understand our situation as well as her younger brother Shane, didn't put up a fight or whine when we didn't have anything to eat.

"Oh good! Because all I have today is fruit for us and a loaf of bread." Mother walked into the kitchen, which was located right next to the front door, only a half a wall separated all the rooms. None of us actually had any privacy besides the bathroom, the only room built with full walls to the ceiling.

Mother spread out all the food on the table and carefully split up everything equally into five different piles. Even though the little kids eat less than us older kids, and mother, we always gave them the same amount. They could save it if they wanted to or eat it all right away. We believed in equality no matter the age in our family.

I picked up the bag that had the food in it to get it off the table and out of the way so we all could sit down and eat together. I noticed a letter at the bottom of the bag with an interesting red seal on it, I felt like I recognized it somehow. I went to reach for it but then my mother interrupted me.

"Arista. Some privacy would be nice. That letter is not for you." Mother quickly took the bag from my hand and went to her half wall bedroom and placed the bag underneath her bed. We both knew I could see her hide it, once again we only have half walls in our house, but my mother knew I was trustworthy. I wouldn't try to read it.

After we all ate I was about to go work but Tonisha started to cry and nobody knew quite why. After all she had plenty to eat today and she didn't seem injured.

"Arista, how about you take care of Tonisha and mother and I will go and do your job," I was about to protest at that idea but Stanton shook his head, "you know the two little ones need to go to bed after dinner. And Tonisha does better with you when she's in a crying mood. Mother and I will have no luck with her and we will all stay up until you get home. It's best for us to go do your job. Either way the money comes to us, right?" Stanton winked at me and gathered his jacket. Mother had heard the plan, though she seemed a little dazed. I had seen her read the letter right after dinner and suddenly she didn't seem like herself. Something must have been in the letter, hopefully it wasn't about anything we owed people.

"Oh, yes. You're right, of course, Stanton. You stay here Arista. Between the two of us it shouldn't take long. You get some rest," Stanton smiled at me and walked out the front door and as mother reached the door she turned to me and continued, "you're going to need it." Her voice was very melancholy and her eyes seemed to be more grey then blue.

I also had a particular knack for being able to read people. And obviously something was wrong.

The next morning I knocked on Grace's door. I had told mother the same lie about Grace and how it was of the upmost importance I saw her this morning to finish our plans.

I was dressed in blue capped sleeved tight fitted top, the ends of it were torn and ragged, and a pair of nice fitted faded blue jeans. It was the nicest outfit I had to my name. I didn't own skirts and I only had capped sleeved shirts that all fit a little too tightly because I had out grown them in the chest area. I figured Grace wanted to see me today so we could go get my picture taken for The Selection.

Grace answered the door, dressed in a nice ladies suit outfit with a bright red shirt on underneath. Her jewelry was perfect matched in different shades of reds and golds. She was stunning and made me look like something less than dirt.

"Oh dear, God, Arista. We can't get your picture taken while you look like that!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me inside. Though once I was inside she quickly let go of me, realizing how unprofessional and not lady like it was to grab me. "Come to the bathroom so we can at least fix your hair before we head down to get your picture taken."

I walked with grace through her grand hallways, each wall was painted a different color of beige and had brown and red frames everywhere with portraits of her family, extended family, and probably other important people.

Her bathroom was like a throne room. Dressed in golds and shining everywhere, the most marbleized sinks and tubs spread out in a room just as big as our kitchen. I couldn't help but gawk at the beauty of a bathroom, yes, a _**bathroom.**_

Quickly Grace pulled up a chair into the bathroom and sat me down in front of a mirror. She brushed out my sun bleached blonde hair, which I had actually brushed for once today, and started to twist it and turn it into different styles.

"You know, you really are a gorgeous girl Arista. I think it's just the mental idea in your head, and everyone else's, that you're a seven. Therefore you can't be gorgeous. But look at you," She said as she pulled away all my hair from my face into a princess like style, "You are beautiful." And for once I actually felt like it. After my hair was pulled back she turned me around in the chair and started putting make up on my face. I wasn't allowed to wear make up until age twelve, but even then I had never really wanted to wear it, so I hadn't worn it at all. So it was weird to me to have a foreign substance on my sun tanned skin.

"You are perfect. Blond, blue eyed, and tan." I heard Grace mutter under her breath, almost in a jealous tone. I was kind of pretty, on occasion. Yes I did have "the perfect combination" as people put it. But I never considered it beautiful. My hair was often wrecked, mangled, and knotted. I only ever threw it up into a ponytail. And my skin was only tanned because I was always working outside, if I was a six then I would be as pale a ghost. Before I started to work outside I was pretty pale and sickly looking. Mother always told me it was a blessing I was bumped down to a seven, because now I had a healthy looking skin color. (Mother always looked at the bright side to any situation)

"Done. Now go ahead and go to the front door and meet me down there. I need to touch up myself and grab a few things." Grace turned me around to look at myself in the mirror first. I always thought I would recognize myself, after all, who knew me better than me? But I had to do a double take at the reflection in the mirror. My light blue eyes popped out next to my skin and hair color and I looked dazzling.

I didn't want to stare to long though, because I didn't want to get attached to looking somewhat beautiful. After all it was a long shot to be Selected.

I walked down the main entrance of the house and waited patiently for Grace. But I noticed a strange letter sitting on her coffee table, one that looked much like the letter in mother's bag. They both had a red seal and were an off white beige color. I walked over to the letter out of curiosity, I wanted to know who it was from.

Maybe I was in shock from the makeover, or maybe I was imagining things. There was no way that letter could be from who I thought it was.

_Marshall Frenzie_

Marshall Frenzie was my father. The red seal was from the firehouse. It had to be him. I couldn't just be kidding myself. How would my mind even come up with that?

I stepped away from the letter as I heard Grace's heals stepping down from the stairs. "Already, sweetheart?"

To stunned to say anything I just nodded my head and gave her a partial smile.

We drove in a black car to get my pictures taken. It's been a long time since I was in a car and I felt like I should have been excited but I couldn't bring myself to be happy about it all. Why was my father sending both mother and Grace a letter?

The rest of the afternoon flew by like a blur, I remember standing in line with girls looking twice at me. Some whispering about me, the seven, standing with Grace. They probably were starting rumors but I didn't care. When it was my turn to take the picture I couldn't even remember how to smile, or maybe I did smile, I honestly couldn't tell anymore. It was good apparently because Grace gave me a thumbs up.

In the car on the way home I wiped off the makeup and took down my hair. Grace looked a little sad that I had to ruin my fresh new look but I explained to her how I didn't want my family to actually know what I was doing. She seemed to understand but I felt like she was holding back on me. She knew something.

I walked in to my house all smiles though because Shane brought me some flowers and welcomed me with a big hug. The little kid always did know when something was wrong or bothering me. "Oh Shane. I love you most." I held him tight in my arms and spun him around. I loved him with all my heart, and if by chance I did get Selected that would mean I would be giving him a better life, with the money income and all.

'_You can't think this way, Arista. They all do. Every person who enters The Selection all think the same. It's all about the money and the chance to be a princess. You will not be chosen. Don't even get your hopes up. It'll all be over in a weeks time.'_


	3. Chapter Three: The Selection

A week passed by in a breeze but by the time the "big day" came around I had forgotten all about The Selection. I had worked all day on two different yards, I dealt with people yelling, fighting, arguing with me, spitting on me, and much more. If anything I was exhausted by the end of the day and managed to block out the world. If I hadn't blocked out everyone maybe I would have remembered about The Selection, after all everyone was buzzing about it.

I sulked into the house, dragging my feet into the worn down house. I wanted to collapse right their and then but Shane had another idea.

"Rissy!" I heard him call my name from the room over. But I processed to late what that little call of his meant. Before I knew it I was knocked onto the floor with the small six year old spread out on me.

"Okay, Shane. Obviously if you, a little six year old, can knock down a grown girl then she's tired." Stanton came to my rescue and picked Shane up off of me. It was true, I obviously had to be exhausted because usually I could still smile and hold my own against Shane and his onslaught of hugs.

"Thanks, Stanton. Can you do me one more favor?" I slowly started to stand back up, my knees shaking from the agonizing day, "Watch Tonisha and Shane a bit longer while I go and take a bath. I promise I'll let you go get rest or go outside once I get out."

"Arista. Take all the time you need. You have been working twice as hard this week. After all you got two new clients and you're taking them on all by yourself. Just know that you will owe me later." Stanton smiled at me and winked, showing he was joking.

It was true about being even more exhausted this week. I had decided since I would be eighteen soon I would have to eventually get married and have children of my own, or at least I wanted to, so I needed to save more money and get use to working by myself.

I walked slowly to the small bathroom in the corner of the house. One hanging light hung over the tin bathtub in the center of the bathroom. The small room was only it by this light, the toilet was located to the right of the tub in the corner and the sink in the opposite corner. The set up made it look like we worshipped the bathtub and banished other appliances.

I let the cold water fill the tub and slowly, after removing my sweat drenched clothes, I sunk deeper and deeper into the tin tub. Honestly at times like this I thought this had to be more comfortable then my own bed. Part of me wanted to just fall asleep in the tub and forget everything else.

Apparently I had fallen asleep because I was woken by a pounding at the bathroom door. "Oh!" Suddenly I found my voice and quickly I jumped out of the tub and wrapped myself in a worn down, but freshly washed, white towel, "One second! I'm sorry! I must have fallen asleep!" I searched the bathroom for my pajamas, which I had planned to get changed into, but I had forgotten them in my room.

"Tonisha, darling! Can you get my pajamas?" I yelled as I cracked the door a bit so she could hear me.

Before anybody could reply, or even think twice, mother's arm shot into the bathroom door with pajamas in her hand. I quickly took them and she shut the door behind her. I thought it was peculiar that she knew that I would forget them. And it was even more peculiar that she was home this early. I stopped for a minute and just stared at my clothes, unsure of what exactly just happened. Something must be wrong for mother to be home.

Quickly I threw on the overly large red shirt that came down to my knees and my short black pants, that used to be long yoga pants but I had cut them to be shorts to fit me better, and I walked outside of the bathroom. I pulled my soaking wet hair up into a pony tail and sped walked into the front room.

"Is everything okay? Is Tonisha hurt? Did Shane get stuck behind the couch again?" My words came out fast, panic overwhelmed me as I saw my mom sitting grimed face staring at the television. Nobody spoke a word to me, they all just stared at the ground or the television.

I counted all the children mentally, Stanton on the couch next to my mom, Tonisha was sitting on the floor in front of Stanton, and Shane was sitting on the right hand side of the couch on the floor. Okay, so all the kids were accounted for.

"What is going on?" I couldn't calm down, I felt like something had to be wrong. The tension in the room, the pale faces, and the small sixteen inch television crackled like they had been watching it.

Then it dawned on me, "The Selection?" The words hardly came out and you wouldn't have heard them unless it was dead silent on the room.

Oh wait, it was.

My mother turned her head slowly towards me and nodded very solemnly. So I had found the root of the problem, The Selection. Now what about it was the problem?

Before I could think of it myself Tonisha and Shane jumped up and grabbed onto my legs laughing and hollering at the top of their lungs. "RISSY IS GONNA BE A PRINCESS!" They screamed together. It was like mother had told them not to show any excitement or enthusiasm because as they screamed and yelled Stanton kept shaking his head at me, indicating that something was wrong with it.

"I was picked. Wasn't I? The first Seven in history. I was Selected." As I spoke these words mother stood up and I heard her mutter very slightly under her breath, "I told him…" But with that she walked right out of the room, not even bothering to give me a second glance.

"Why didn't you tell us you entered The Selection, Arista. It seems like that would have been important information." Stanton accused me and his blue eyes slowly turned darker as he stared me down. Tonisha and Shane still attached to my legs.

"Stanton. I didn't think it was a big deal. I don't know why every girl gets worked up over it. Only one girl gets chosen out of the entire state. I didn't think it was possible. You never think something could possibly happen to you," I paused, a small tear coming to my eye, "until it happens."

Stanton stood up, locking eyes with me, but a smile spread across his face, "We get money, you know? And you get to live like royalty. And you get to make history. You get to show all of Illéa what a seven's life is really like." Suddenly he realized all the benefits of me being in The Selection held.

"I get to change to our lives." I realized to then what exactly this all meant. Except I still didn't know why mother was upset about it all, "Why Stanton-" I had started to ask but he just shook his head at me and responded,

"I don't know."

The next day I had visitors coming and going every few minutes. I had called all my clients and told them I would have to hold back on work for them. Some of them were excited for me and gladly let me take the day off, some of them were upset and I lost their business.

The most important and interesting visitor our run down house got was none other than Grace herself.

"Oh darling! I told you. I knew you would be wonderful. And here you are, living a dream." Grace smiled and winked at me, like she knew something I didn't. Before she left I saw her glance at my mother and nod at her, my mother just turned her head away. Something was happening between the two but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I had an official come to my house, explaining all the official rules of The Selection. He asked me lots of questions, made me sign a paper, and gave me a lot of medicine. "You're a seven. I don't think you've ever been vaccinated before and you are more likely to get sick because of your," he stopped to look around my run down home, "condition." He said with a distaste.

I had another visitor who measured me and was very kind. She complimented my body shape a lot and told me that I would look beautiful, once I arrived at the palace. "And I will have someone send you some clothes before the day the state sees you off. I assume you have nothing really nice to wear and everyone around the country will be seeing you leave your family and state. You need to look better than," She checked out my appearance, today I was wearing very faded blue jeans with a white tank top, "what you currently look like. Don't get me wrong. You're beautiful. You just need some work." The nice lady, who had bright red lips, beamed at me and then left.

The day seemed to fly by, all the people coming in and out. It was hard to imagine that in just two days I would be leaving for the palace. I would be living inside of a grand place, bigger and more beautiful than Grace's own home. I could hardly imagine it.

The only thing that really disturbed me about this whole Selection thing was my mother. She didn't speak a single word to me since I had been Selected. Not a hello, goodbye, don't, no, or anything else. It was like I was dead to her or she was hiding something. Whenever I thought of her cold glances at me I got chills down my spine. Why was mother acting like this towards me? I sure hoped she would be warmed up again by the time I left. I didn't want to leave on a bad note.

Though that's exactly what would happen.


	4. Chapter Four: Goodbyes and Reunions

The day before I was to be paraded off a medium sized brown package arrived at our door step. Tonisha came running into the house with full excitement, for the package had the widely recognized royal crest on it. She ran around the house for a moment, running into every room, with the package held high above her head. Finally I caught her in the living room, picking her up and holding her as her feet still raced.

"Tonisha! Calm down, child!" I couldn't help but laugh as she dropped the package and looked up at me, holding her, her wide blue eyes stared at me and a large smile spread cheek to cheek.

I placed Tonisha down and picked the package and sat on the couch, "You can come sit next time while I open it!" I motioned for Tonisha to come sit and eagerly she did. Nobody else was home at the time but I figured with mother still being upset and the boys being boys they wouldn't care much about opening the package that probably just had clothes for my departure day.

I carefully peeled off the seal from the top and opened the package really slowly, creating anticipation for Tonisha who was now hovering over me and the package. Slowly I reveled a plain white capped shirt, just like all my other shirts, but this one was nice. No holes, fringed sides, or grass stains. I handed it to Tonisha who held it like a precious gem. I then pulled out a pair of nice black pants, made out of denim. They looked kind of tight and had a very straight leg to them. I also handed the pants to Tonisha, who now was glowing from excitement. That last thing in the box was a wrapped up flower hair accessory. It was wrapped in plastic because the daisy, our province flower, was a real fresh flower. The yellow daisy was surrounded by littler white daisies and green leaves. It was an absolutely gorgeous hair piece and I wish it was made out of fake flowers, I didn't want it to die.

"I'll hold onto this, okay? It has to stay nice until tomorrow." I took the flower and placed it in the small refrigerator in our kitchen. The heat would surely make the flower die quicker. Tonisha had run off to play around the house, leaving my clothes on the couch. She has such a small attention span. I took the clothes and put them in my bedroom, I figured I should wait until tomorrow to wear them.

The rest of the day passed by, the boys came home with mother and a bag of food. We ate bread and some soup and we all went off to bed, hardly speaking a word to each other.

Wednesday. I woke up early that morning because of a knock on the door. It was still a little dark outside and only 5 AM. I wasn't leaving until 8 AM which meant I still had another hour or two to sleep in, so why was someone at the door already?

The rest of the family seemed to not hear the knock so I groggily got out of bed and walked to the door while patting down my crazy bed hair. I opened to the door to see a bright and familiar face, Grace.

"Darling! I came over early. We only have three hours until the officials come to get you. We need to fix your hair, makeup, paint your nails, and get you dressed. I figured three hours would be plenty of time." Grace's face was vibrant and her bright red lipstick made her smile even bigger. She wore a white pencil skirt with a frilly red blouse, Grace always looked presentable.

I welcomed her into my house and to my surprise she kept smiling. I thought as a three she would be disgusted by our house, the small house smelled nice but was tiny and falling apart. It was nothing compared to her overly large home.

I had to accepted my fate of Grace making me over today . "Where would you like to go?" I asked her, not sure if she wanted to really go into our tiny bathroom and fix me up there.

"How about your bedroom?" She kept smiling at me but I could tell it was a forced smile. So maybe she was disgusted by our home.

I led her into my bedroom, the furthest bedroom in the house. My bedroom was a decent size, I had a twin sized bed, bookshelf, vanity, and a small window on the right side. The walls were painted a bright green and the floor was made out of grey wood. My bedroom was always kept nice and neat. It was also located right next to Tonisha and mother's bedroom, with only half walls really separating our rooms and no doors I motioned to Grace to keep quiet by holding up a finger to my thin lips. She nodded in agreement and I went to go get two chairs for us to sit down on in the kitchen.

When I returned to my bedroom with the chairs Grace had laid out all her makeup supplies, nail polishes, and every beauty product imaginable. She grabbed one of the chairs and put in front of her and motioned for me to sit.

"Don't make me over to much, okay? I want to still look like me." I asked her politely and she seemed to understand because she smiled a small genuine smile at me.

It took three hours to get read, mostly because we talked a lot. During the first thirty minutes of Grace's visit we were deadly silent until everyone started to wake up. Suddenly the house was full of life. Tonisha and Shane watched Grace fix me over, mother left to go work, and Stanton made food. We all talked and laughed together. It was nice. I was going to miss this.

By the end of the three hours my nails were painted a yellow color with white dots, to make the hair piece. My blonde hair was loosely curled so it still reach my shoulder blades and Grace had pulled back the sides of my hair with the hair piece. My make up was made with natural browns which made my light blue eyes pop and my lips had a light pink lip-gloss on them to make them shine. The crisp white shirt felt amazing on me and my black pants fit perfectly, Grace pointed out they were a "skinny" style and not the boot cut I was used to.

I felt like I had on the day I took my picture for The Selection. Beautiful.

Before I knew the Officials were at my house to pick me and family up to go to the town square and then the airport. Mother had just gotten home before them. They escorted us to the car and I invited Grace to come with us, who gladly accepted.

The six of us sat in the car, mostly in an awkward silence, except for Tonisha and Shane who looked out the windows and pointed things out to us excitedly. The town square was about 15 miles from our house and I don't think the two little ones had ever gone been this far from home. We didn't have a car either so they were excited to be riding in one, where I felt uncomfortable.

When we arrived I noticed the square was filled with people from every caste, all watching me as I got out of the car. Some of them whooped and hollered for me, mostly the lower castes, and some of the people were silent or booed, and those responses were solely from the upper castes.

I wasn't sure if I should smile or not but when cameras started to come around and tape me I decided to give them my best impression. The officials told me to say my goodbyes to my family, the mayor would announce me, I would say a few words and then leave.

I first hugged Grace and thanked her for everything she had done for me. She smiled and held my face after I let go of her and said to me, "Arista, I believe you would make a fine princess." With that she let me continue my goodbyes.

I hugged Shane next, I spun him around while I hugged him tightly. I heard his little laugh, depending on how long I lasted in this competition; it would be awhile before I heard his laugh again. I then hugged Tonisha who started to cry, "You are so pretty. I can't wait for you to be a princess." She hugged me tighter than let go as Stanton approached to hug me next.

As Stanton hugged me he whispered into my ear, "Arista I need to tell you something, right now. Father is-" But before he could finish mother pulled him away to hug me. Stanton eyes pleaded with me, he really wanted to tell me something about father and I really wanted to know.

Mother hugged me and when she let go I could see in her eyes that she still wasn't happy about the Selection, and she still hadn't said a single word to me since I got Selected.

Before I could ask Stanton what he wanted to say or yell mother for not talking to me I was pulled away by officials. On the small stage set up I heard the mayor start talking. I was lead up to join him, giving one last glance at my family.

"Clermont is very proud to have the first ever seven compete in The Selection. We hope for the best from our very own, Arista Green." The mayor announced me and I felt my heart racing, my palms sweat, and suddenly I was filled with fear. All the faces stared at me, some with happiness and some with anger. I felt frozen in my tracks as the Mayor tried to hand me the microphone to say something, but I couldn't take it. It hit me right then how big The Selection is and how people all across Illéa would see me. The only seven, competing to win over the prince's heart. The Prince who I had never seen before or even knew much about. Why did I do this to myself?

Finally the mayor shook my arm a bit and whispered in my ear, "Are you alright, Arista?" I snapped out of my dazed state and nodded at him. "Would you like to say anything?" I had a choice? I didn't know I could choose to say something or not. At first I was going to decline but I realized that I owed it to Clermont to say something.

I took the microphone with shaking hands, "Thank you all for your support. I'm very excited to be representing Clermont. I'm glad I get to go down in history as the first seven to be Selected. I hope I do you all proud." I smiled at the crowd who burst out in applause, the higher castes not even booing anymore.

And with that I was swept away to go to the airport.

The drive was long and silent. I stared out the window, much like Tonisha and Shane did. I had never been this far from home and I loved every second of it. Though I missed my family very much, and I was still curious as to what Stanton was going to say to me, I was excited to be on an adventure. I had never been to an airport before and this included when I was still a two. I didn't fear flying, probably because I didn't realize exactly what an airplane was or the dangerous of it. I just knew I would get into a vehicle and arrive at the palace.

The airport was busy but a section of it had been sealed off for the Selection. I was the last to arrive, Clermont being the farthest away from the airport. By the terminal were three girls: Riley Pritchett a two from Allans, Precious Winter a three from Carolina, and Macey Sun another two from Kent. I knew Macey. Like, I actually knew who she was. When I was a two, her family, the Sun's, used to visit us in Clermont. Her father was Kent's chief fireman and my father was her father's best friend. Panic arose in me, I didn't think anybody in this competition would have to know that I used to be a two and was knocked down the ladder. I wasn't planning on telling anyone and all the records of our history had been erased or destroyed because of my father. I wasn't sure how much she knew or what her father had told her.

As I got closer I noticed Macey's eyes grew wider as she stared at me. "Arista." I heard her say in a shocked tone. She dropped her bags and ran towards me, embracing me in a hug.

At least I wouldn't be alone.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Thank you so much for the reviews, favorites, and everything else. I'm really enjoying writing this story and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

I have so much I want to tell in all these chapters. I have it all planned out what I need to tell in each chapter but I keep getting behind because there is **so much** to tell. So hopefully you guys don't find these chapter's to long. I think I will have another update coming out today (3/9/14) so keep in touch.

And it should pick up soon. Meeting Macey is just the beginning of Arista's story.

Thank you again.


	5. Chapter Five: The Makeover

"Arista!" Macey embraced me in a hug that was much tighter then my own mother's hug when she said goodbye. And I wasn't sure if I should even hug her back, I was too stunned. I had heard everyone's names who would be waiting for us at the airport on the way here, it didn't click with me that Macey Sun was the Macey I knew. And I had never seen pictures of The Selected, in fact I didn't even know anyone else in The Selection because I hadn't watched the newscast.

And what shocked me more was the fact that she had bags with her. I was told not to bring anything. No clothes, since they would have some, I didn't own my own make up, and they would have toiletries so they told me that there would be no point in bringing anything. I think the information was fed to me wrong or the officials really didn't like me. One or the other.

"Hello, Macey. Long time no see. Can we catch up when we are in a more private setting?" I asked her while I hugged her back. I felt suddenly overwhelmed with emotions for seeing her brought back flashes of memories of my past when I was a two. And as much as I tried to convince myself that I didn't miss it I really always have.

Macey stopped hugging me, tilting her head as she stared into my light blue eyes with her own darker blue eyes, "Yeah, of course. We probably should get on the plane anyways." She looked at me curiously then smiled as she began to walk back to her bags. The rest of the competitors didn't talk to me or greet me. They all just grabbed their stuff and got on board.

The plane was obviously meant to hold many passengers, it's capacity was 150, but the only people riding today were the four Selected and four officials who were escorting us. Macey and I sat as far away as possible so we could catch up and talk.

"I thought you were dead. My father told me that your family died, besides your father, in some kind of fire at your house. We came to visit for the funeral and your house was a wreck. How did you survive? Why are you a seven? And your last name is Green? And now you're a seven?" Macey didn't hold back on questions. She was just like this when we were kids. Always chatting and asking things, she was curious.

"My house was burnt down?" That took me by surprise and I almost felt like crying but I sucked up the tears, I had never heard what rumors went around when we left, "Macey, I obviously didn't die. Neither did any of my family. My father decided to go run off with a two, a model to be exact. He paid off a bunch of people to pretty much get rid of us so no complications would come up. My mother used to be a seven and her last name was Green. So when we left we were bumped down to caste seven again and we changed our last name to hers." I had never told anyone this story and I found it rather difficult. Unlike most tragic stories that were repeated to anyone who would listen, my story had never been told. I had no friends besides my family, I always worked, and nobody really cared. The only person who knew we used to be two's is Grace and that's because she was our closest "family friend".

Macey's jaw dropped at my story and her eyes grew wide. She couldn't believe what she just heard, "But I met your father on many occasions. He loved your mother. Why would he do that to you guys? You were the happiest family. It was the saddest thing to ever happen. And if you still lived in Clermont how did nobody recognize you?"

"I still don't know to this day why he left us. He moved out of Clermont pretty fast and I never heard from him again. I used to listen to radio reports for the first two weeks but then he moved. And we moved to the other side of Clermont, plus when we lived as a two we never knew anyone besides out of state families like you. We lived in a giant flower field in the middle of nowhere, as you remember. We never got to know anyone in Clermont." I shrugged my shoulders like it was all nothing but then it dawned on me: What if my father had been planning on leaving all along? We lived in the middle of nowhere. He made sure we never met anybody besides people out of our province. It would make it that much easier to get rid of us and not have to move province if he wanted to leave us. 

"That's so sad, Arista." Macey smiled empathetically at me.

"It's okay, Macey. It's nice that I know you though, even if we are competition." I winked at her and we both laughed like old times. "Oh. And can you do me a favor and not mention my past to anyone? I would prefer to be a seven and not that girl who used to be a two but was bumped down at thirteen. I would rather be a plain Jane then a girl with a mysterious past."

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Macey promised.

And with that we laughed and caught up in each other's lives, joking and teasing as if nothing ever happened between the two of us. We spent the entire plane ride becoming best friends again. We forget we were even competing against each other. 

Arriving at the airport only a few miles away from the palace I could see all the cameras waiting for us outside of the terminal. Though something was wrong, the officials let all the other girls go and greet the people and cameras but not me. They held me back waiting inside of the airplane.

"Arista, the car is going to meet us outside the airplane on the runaway instead of at the front gate of the airport." One of the men said to me.

"I'm obviously going to ask you why the other girls get to go and not me."

The man sighed and said, "There are protestors outside of the terminal waiting for you. They don't mind the other girls but it seems like choosing a seven for The Selection caused some uproar. Even if you are only one girl out of thirty five."

I couldn't believe what he had just said to me! People were protesting me! I stared at him in shock hoping he would change his mind and tell me he was joking.

"Queen America has changed a lot of Illéa's mind about the lower castes, but not for the sevens. Sevens are close to being eights and nobody likes an eight." The man's voice turned harsh and more sharp when he started talking about eights. I could tell by his eyes he probably had a bad experience with an eight or just had an irrational hatred for them.

So we waited for about fifteen minutes before I got the go ahead to leave the airplane. Instead of going inside the long pathway that led to the airport I got to go down the steep airplane stairs and get inside the car that waited for us on the runway.

I was greeted by Macey who was sitting in the back, "Arista! I'm so sorry about that. But it's a good thing you didn't go through the airport. There were a lot of people waiting for you with picket signs and mean looks. It was a mess!" Her eyes filled with concern for me as we began to take off for the palace. I shrugged my shoulders at her and decided to change the conversation.

Looking at the two girls who sat facing us, (what a peculiar car), I addressed them, "Sorry I never formally introduced myself. I'm Arista Green from Clermont, as you probably know. I know who you two are, they told me on the way here, but I figured we should hold a nice conversation." I held out a hand for them to shake but they both just glanced at my hand and then each other.

Riley Pritchett, the 2 from Allans, has long raven black hair with really brown eyes. She had that gaze that made you want to curl up under a blanket and hide. Her jaw was well defined and she wore a serious expression. She was the first to speak, "We know you. Yes. Nice to meet you." Her voice was stone cold.

The other girl was Precious Winter, a 3 from Carolina, she has plain brown hair that goes down to her neckline and very green eyes, she spoke only a second after Riley, "Pleased to meet you." Her voice didn't sound pleased at all. I didn't know it was possible to have a voice colder than stone but she did. I thought she looked friendlier than Riley but I was obviously wrong. I was off game today with my knack for reading people.

The rest of the car ride was silent. Macey and I didn't even talk, she seemed to not want to be friends with Riley and Precious anymore than I did.

The palace was glowing when it came into sight, even in the day time. The perfectly trimmed grass, the tall trees, the giant windows, metal gates, and the stone pathway all seemed to scream royalty to me. One of the officials opened the doors for us and led us inside. I felt small compared to the grand hallways and the giant doors that led to each room. Grace's house was nothing compared to this.

"You are the last four to arrive, which seems to now be ongoing pattern. Last year the same group was late, and the Queen came out of it," The women laughed at her own thoughts then continued on with a serious voice, "all the other girls are meeting in your main room, the Women's room. Makeovers are being done as part of tonight's broadcast. You will take before pictures, get made over, take after photos, and do a mini interview." And with that we were ushered quickly into a room full of bustling girls, hairspray, dresses, and loads of noise. It was overwhelming but exhilarating all at the same time.

The four of us went over and took our before pictures, it was odd for me to be taking a photo. It had been four years since I had taken a photo, which actually wasn't that long. Before I could talk to Macey again a very small women and a tall man, both with a high end fashion sense, took me by the arm and led me to a vanity.

"I'm Lily and this is my partner James. We will be doing your make over today!" The women, Lily, said to me in a chipper voice. Her voice was unnaturally high and her hair was streaked with many different colors and her eyes were an unnatural golden color. The man, James, was very tall and wore a fashionable scarf, he had dark brown hair with striking hazel eyes.

"You area gorgeous girl already, but blonde hair and blue eyes are so," James spoke and tapped a comb to his chin while Lily finished his sentence, "Sterotypical. Normal. Plain. Not special." Okay, that was one way to knock down your confidence.

"Not special is right. Just like being a seven." I heard another voice chip in and then appeared a brown haired girl, with red highlights, and very bright and light brown eyes. Her complexion was perfect and her facial features were outstanding. She leaned in close to me and said in the most deeming voice she could muster, "I'm Daisy Ambers. Kriss Ambers daughter. And I am going to win. Nice to meet you, Seven." And with that she walked away.

"Well she's a bitch." Lily said after she left then rolled her eyes. Both Lily and James turned their attention back to me, "Don't worry about her. What should we do with you?" Lilly spoke with a motherly like voice.

"You need to stand out. Make a statement because you are a seven, the only seven." James repeated.

"Would people stop defining me as a seven? Next time I hear someone give me the excuse that I'm a seven I'm-" And even here at The Selection it seemed like I would never be able to finish a sentence.

"You have to embrace it, Arista. It's an asset to you." Lily smiled at me then started to play with my hair, inspiration struck her because she looked at James with wide eyes and spoke one word, "Blue."

"No, blue highlights will make her look like a want to be punk." James rolled his eyes at her and she rolled her eyes back at him.

"No. Not blue highlights. She has beautiful hair that goes with her sunny tan, we don't want to ruin it to much. So I figured that if we split her hair up," Lily took the top half of my hair and pulled it up, "and dyed just the bottom layers blue then she would be able to keep her mature blonde hair but have a stand out pop of blue underneath it." Lily smiled at James and they both high fived each other in agreement.

"And let's give her bangs." James added.

And without my consent they started a makeover on me. Dying the bottom layer of my hair Egyptian blue and cutting my hair to give me swoop bangs long enough to almost cover my right eye but not quite. After dying and cutting they curled my hair so the blonde meshed and turned into the blue color. They put a bright red lipstick color on me and fitted me into a short version of a white cupcake dress that went down to my knees. And with that they sent me over to do the interview and take pictures.

"Yes I am quite excited to be a part of The Selection. If anything I'm most excited to wear dresses. I know it seems silly but every seven wishes to at least feel like a princess. It's kind of our hidden dream, a fantasy." I smiled at the camera the sweetest smile I could do under the pressure. I took Lily's advice, being a seven was my asset. Sure some people were against it but my caste is what set me a part.

"And finally, what are your thoughts on Prince Zander?" Tralinda, the absolutely gorgeous host for The Selection, asked.

"Honestly? I don't know. I've never seen him before," I thought for a second to confirm that thought, "yeah. I don't even know what he looks like. I wouldn't recognize him. And I don't hear anything about him because I'm not around people who talk about the royalty. I don't have much time for media or politics, I'm working all the time. I haven't seen a movie, listened to music, or watched television in forever. I guess some could ask me what I'm doing here if I don't know the Prince. I figure if he is the child of King Maxon and Queen America then he has to be pretty amazing." My answer was honest, I wasn't trying to suck up.

"Well. There you have it, Illea. Arista Green from Clermont."

After the makeover we ate, we were directed to go to the Great Room once we were done eating to view the_ Report_ of our makeovers. This was the first the Prince would be seeing of us and we would meet him tomorrow morning during breakfast, where it is rumored he makes his first cut according to the _Report._

I thought I could sit next to Macey during dinner but they had laid out places for us and she was far away from me, so I ate in silence. Ten girls had finished eating and they all went to the Great Room together, I finished a little bit after that and began to go to the Great Room. While turning a corner I smacked right into an Official.

"Oh gosh. I'm so sorry, I should look more where I am going!" I apologized and did a small bow to him then looked up to meet his green eyes.

"That's alright, Miss-" He stopped then, I presumed he wanted my name.

"Arista. Arista Green." I smiled a nervous smile at him, hoping he wouldn't report me to the Prince and get me sent home. Maybe I was a bit paranoid.

"Arista? I should have guessed. You have your father's bright blue eyes. I'm Aspen Leger." He held out a hand for me to shake but I couldn't process it. My heart beat increased and I felt sick to my stomach.

'_How did THE Aspen Leger, head of security and the guards at the palace, know MY father?'_


	6. Chapter Six: The Balcony

Aspen Leger was standing right in front of me and he knew my father. That meant my father had to have come to the Illéa palace because it was rumored that Aspen never went anywhere that Queen America wasn't. Aspen could have some of the answers. Like who my father ran away with, if he had any idea why, and did my father talk about me? Obviously my father had to because Aspen knew I was his daughter.

I finally got my words to come out of my mouth, "Aspen, how did-" Seriously? Was I just never meant to finish a sentence anywhere I went? Right as I was about to start a conversation with the mysterious and wonderfully green eyed Aspen, Macey came up to my and grabbed my arm squeeling into my ear.

"Tonight is the night Prince Zander gets to find out who we are! Come on, Arista. It's time to guess what girls will be going home tomorrow!" She laughed at me and pulled me away from Aspen. I tried to dig my heels into the ground, but the small blue flats given to me by Lily and James didnot meant to have any traction to them. I turned my head back to sneak a glance at Aspen who laughed at me and waved goodbye.

"We'll talk later, Miss. Green." He nodded his head in a polite way and walked away from the scene.

"Aren't you so glad I saved you?" Macey whispered to me as we entered the Great Room, "I saw you bump into Aspen and I was so scared for you, so I had to hop in. And anyways, we were going to be late for the _Report_." Macey grabbed my arm, not waiting for a response from me, and pulled me into one of the large couches next to her. If I had to describe Macey in as few words as possible I would say: Full of energy. She bounced around from one topic to the next without even a moment for her brain to really switch gears. She must never sleep.

Ten couches and several love seats, all in a matching brown color, were set up around the television in a half circle. All 35 girls now sat, still in their new gorgeous clothes, anxiously awaiting the _Report._

I sat thinking even as the show began, unlike all the other girls who sat forward watching as they came on television. Before photo, after photo, and interview. The times I would focus on the television I noticed that most of the girls seemed nervous on television or they seemed as natural as could be, nobody was really in between.

Except for Macey.

I didn't realize Macey looked so much different until her after photo appeared. I did a double take, staring at Macey sitting beside me. Her long rich auburn hair had been cut to her shoulders and given a few different layers, and thinned out. They also evened out her bangs, getting rid of the swoop which now I had, and decided to go with the very fashionable straight across bangs. They didn't touch her hair color because it matched her dark blue eyes so well, and with the straight across bangs they popped out even more.

Macey's interview was awkward but good. She wasn't a natural but she wasn't nervous. She was just Macey. Like I said before, she bounces from subject to subject.

My interview appeared last on the _Report_. It was simple, my transformation was kind of drastic. I went from blonde hair blued eyed normal girl to blond and blue haired girl with matching blue eyes. My interview wasn't bad, at least I didn't think so until I heard a bunch of collective gasps around the room when I mentioned I had never heard or seen of Prince Zander before.

After the broadcast we were all showed to our rooms. My room was next to Macey's and far down on the second floor. I mouthed, 'Goodnight' to her as I walked into the very large doors that led into my bedroom.

My house was almost the same size as my new bedroom. Giant walls, huge windows, and even a balcony. The room also held a bathroom off to the left, my own bathroom. The walls were painted in different shades of green, (I think somebody wanted to play off of my name), and a grand white piano sat waiting for someone to play in the left corner of the room. Leaning up against it was a very simple and elegant brown acoustic guitar. My bed was pressed against the wall right next to the door of the balcony. The bed itself had brown and green spreadsheets and many giant white pillows. Oak wood framed the bed and it even had those giant pillars that held curtains on the bed so I could sleep feeling like I was in a giant curtain box.

I wanted to play the instruments, go onto the balcony, and flop down on the bed all at the same time. But before I could decide what I wanted to do three girls entered my room from the private bathroom.

The first girl was abnormally tall, probably about 6'3", with frizzy honey blonde hair. The second girl was about Lily's height, very short, about 4' 10" at the most. She had smooth dark brown hair, borderline of black, which made her eyes look grey. And the last girl was almost as tall as the first, maybe a couple inches shorter, and she too had honey blonde hair, just not as frizzy as the first.

"May I help you?" I said suddenly, scocked that three girls just came out of my bathroom.

"I'm East," said the first tall girl, "and this is Joanie," East said while pointing at the short girl, "and finally my sister Esther." She pointed to the third girl, I should have guessed they would be sisters. "And we are your own personal maids, Miss Seve-" Joanie, the short one, elbowed her in the side and East corrected herself, "Miss Arista." All three curtsied a little for me and then quickly ran over to me to start to undress me for bed, or so I assumed as the three were pulling at my clothes.

"Wait? What? Undress me? Why? I can do that! It's just a simple dress!" I backed away from the three girls.

"I told you she would need no help. She's a seven after all. She's lower than us." Esther said in an oddly sweet voice, it hadn't been her intention to be mean at all.

"It's true. I'm not even wearing anything complicated, just a simple dress." I laughed nervously at them who backed a few steps away from me.

"Alright, Miss Arista. Sorry, we just got over excited. I mean, I'm excited. We maids don't get much excitement until The Selection. We design all your dresses and take care of you. And it's a lot of fun. For me at least. East and Joanie aren't that-" Esther was much like Macey, a talker. But what she was about to say was interrupted by Joanie who began to speak,

"What she means is that we want to help you. We aren't that excited to be serving a seven, to be honest with you. But we are at the same time; it means you might be a bit nicer to us." Joanie looked at me, her eyes looked sunken into her skull like she hadn't eaten in days or was malnourished in childhood.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I know it must be weird to be serving someone below you. But we can agree for now that I will treat you," I stopped for a second thinking about what I was about to say, "I heard a rumuour once that Queen America was very nice to her maids. She played games with them, laughed with them, and treated them like her friends and not maids. And hopefully we can see each other like that. I would love to be as kind as Queen America." I smiled the sweetest smile I could muster from the long day and the three seemed to accept it.

"Alright. If you want to be like the Queen then that means tonight you can undress yourself and you will be sleeping alone, correct? You wouldn't want to make one of us maids miss out on sleep to watch you like the other girls make their maids do? We will come and wake you in the morning and draw your bath. Goodnight." East's voice was as cold as Precious's, the girl from Carolina. It was obvious than that Esther liked me, Joanie was indecisive, and East was against me. Great, three different opinions. And East seemed to be the leader, because after she spoke all three left the room.

At least I was alone with my thoughts.

'_What an interesting day: A cold goodbye from my mother, protestors, being called a seven numerous times, makeovers, spiteful and sweet maids, and Aspen.' _Aspen was the most interesting part of my day. I wanted to get ready for bed, noticing the maids had left my sleeping outfit on the giant oak wardrobe, located on the other side of the room as my bed and next to a matching vanity.

"I'll get dressed later. First mission is to play that guitar." I spoke to myself, realizing I was probably the only person who wouldn't interrupt my sentences.

The guitar was gorgeous and I felt almost to lowly to be touching it. Not many families I worked for had one, so it had been four years since I played. I wasn't sure if I would interrupt anyone's sleeping by playing inside, and the balcony was calling my name. Taking off my blue flats to free my feet I steppe outside the rounded balcony with the guitar.

Two white wooden chairs with green seat comforters were on the balcony, both with no arm rests. This was perfect to play the acoustic guitar.

I started off rusty, for the first thirty minutes I messed around trying to remember different chords. Finally I started to get the hang of it and as I started to play slow songs my past came to me and overwhelmed me. I remembered the days spent with my dad playing different songs for him. He taught me different chords and different lullabies to sing. I used to have little concerts for my family when I was about ten, I would play them my guitar and sing the most ridiculous made up songs. Of course they would applaud and cheer for me like I was the best singer song writer in the world.

I almost started to cry over the memories and I strummed the guitar and sung some of the lullabies my father taught me. My favorite being the one he taught me literally a week before he ran away and we moved.

_Someday, princess, you will find your true love._

_You'll live happily ever after._

_So go to sleep now,_

_Close your eyes._

_Dream of his face_

_And his gentle hands._

_You'll be a princess,_

_He'll be your prince._

_Who cares if you live in a palace,_

_Or a cottage,_

_Or a shack in the desert._

_You'll be his love,_

_And he'll be your prince_

My father always taught me lullabies about princes and princesses, I always dreamed of falling in love and feeling like a princess.

The tears were held back because as I finished this song I heard a bunch of rustling and then someone began to clap. I looked to my right, where the sound was coming from, and saw a man in a guard's uniform sitting on the edge of the balcony clapping for me.

"Well that was pretty. Who taught you that, Seven?" The man spoke with a gentle tone and he swung his legs over the balcony and came to sit in the chair next to mine.

"I have a-" I just shook my head, not even wanting to correct him for the mispronunciation of my actual name, "My father taught me that song. How did you get up here, might I ask?"

The boy's eyes sparkled a brilliant shade of brown that kind of just sucked you in. His strawberry blonde hair, a little more red than most strawberry blonde's I knew, was not cut like a guard's hair cut. It was gelled in the front and pulled back in a men's fashionable way. What guard was fashionable?

"I heard you singing so I climbed all the way up those vines to romantically sweep you off your feet." He proclaimed to me and quickly got down on one knee next to, looking at me with his adorable eyes. Before I could respond he chuckled and got back into his seat, "I'm kidding. Your balcony is special, it's built with a ladder like thing underneath the green growth of weeds. It's meant to help as an escape incase of rebels. Nice to know, huh?" He winked at me at the end of his sentence.

"Alright then. Nice to know in case I want to escape to. Of course I shouldn't be telling you that, now should I? Or if I declare my own love for you and have to run away before I get my head chopped of for treason!" I got down in my white dress on one knee, copying his previous action. I laughed as he was taken by surprise. I don't think he expected me to play along.

I got back up onto my own chair, noticing my white dress now had some dirt on the knee. "I wouldn't want to escape, let me correct myself their and not joke around about that. I like it here." I smiled at him, sure the boy had scared the living daylights out of me, but he seemed pretty nice. And maybe it would be useful to know a guard around here.

"Oh, Madam. You don't even know what is outside of the palace. It's a magnificent forest down there. You would love it." He looked at me once more and took my guitar and started to strum on it.

"And how would you know I love it? You don't even know me. What if I'm allergic to trees?" I sat back in my chair as I listened to him strum my guitar. He seemed to know a few notes.

But as I listened I realized he began to copy my song. My father's lullaby to me. He began to hum and then sing it.

"Hey! What, how did you?" I sat up from my chair and stared at him with questioning eyes.

"Don't trust a stranger with your songs. You never know when they have a brilliant memory." He gave me another wink then handed back my guitar.

A part of me was slightly offended, and I wanted to punch him in the arm, but I realized that would be unlady like. And I was trying my best to appear as a perfect little "Mary Sue" like girl to him. Even though I was far from the perfect girl I wanted to see myself as.

"Shouldn't you be on guard?" I asked him plainly, almost trying to get rid of him.

"Nah, I'm on break to talk to a pretty girl." He smiled at me and slunk into his seat and I slunk into mine.

A moment of silence. But it wasn't an awkward silence, it was a peaceful silence.

* * *

I don't remember much else of this night. I believe we sat talking about the stars and different ways to escape rebel attacks. I'm sure I made a fool out of myself, I wasn't very good at talking to boys. I had no friends back in Clermont and found it shocking that I was able to talk so easily to a boy. He reminded me a lot of Stanton. The guard was slightly serious, on occasion, but all around a good guy and fun to talk to. Which was just like Stanton! Maybe that's why I could talk so easily to this guard. I basically just "friend zoned" this guard, which was probably a good thing, I couldn't go falling for a guard. The rules were clear, I was to not love anybody but the Prince.

I had fallen asleep and one point and woke up to feel a kiss on my forehead.

The next morning came by and I felt a hand shake me awake violently. "We thought you had died or run away!" Esther's voice was full of concern for me. Apparently my maids had been searching for me. They were a little disgusted that I had stayed in my nice white dress all night, so they made sure to draw an extra soapy bath and give me fresh clothes for the day.

Today I wore a white day dress with small green flowers accenting it. The maids dressed me and fixed up my hair, pulling all of it up into what they called a "messy" bun. It was spread throughout the top of my head and they lined it with little jewels. I looked pretty once again today, I wasn't sure if I would ever get used to this kind of treatment.

"Well that was easy to get you ready today, Miss Arista. Thank you!" Esther smiled at me and then escorted me to the dining hall where we would be having breakfast, my other maids left the moment I looked presentable. It was safe to say I liked Esther the best out of all my maids.

A few girls did a double take of me, they noticed I seemed to be fitting quite well into the clothes and appearance of someone higher than my actual caste. I sat down at the spot marked for me, once again far away from my only friend Macey. Before breakfast was served to us a small lady came walking into the room,

"Hello girls, I am Lady Odetta. Usually I would have introduced myself far before this point but I've been very busy. I will be your personal mentor this year at The Selections. Usually before you meet the royal family I would have gone over with all of you table manners. But I am afraid we are running on a schedule that I cannot control and therefore you will be meeting the royal family now. Please stand and curtsey for the King, Queen, and Prince of Illéa." And with that the small grey haired lady, Odetta, stepped aside and the doors behind her slowly opened to reveal the King and Queen, who walked arm in arm smiling from ear to ear. Beautiful Queen America had her striking red hair hung down and she glowed with true happiness from her lovely husband King Maxon.

I was stunned by America's grace and beauty, I heard she wasn't this wonderful at The Selections back in her time, and I didn't even notice the Prince enter until I heard some gasps and swoons coming from the other girls. I turned my focus to see Prince Zander.

Brown eyes and strawberry blonde hair, Prince Zander. The guy I had friend zoned last night on my balcony.

And surprisingly my first thought wasn't, _'The __**prince **__kissed my forehead!' _or '_The __**prince**__ sung to me with my guitar.' _My first thought actually was, _'He __**lied **__to me!'_

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

I love this chapter. I was really excited to introduce her maids and the Prince. **_Guest mih, _**(Yes this is a shoutout), in the reviews actually guessed what was going to happen with the prince. So that was exciting. I've been planning out this meeting for a long time. So hopefully you guys enjoy it as much as me! (My own heart skips a beat!)

Special shout out also to fantastic people like _**Jennifer1414, ilona18, Fluer Summer, Athena Child, and ABreathAwayFromWhereYouAre.**_Thank you guys for the reviews, favorites, watches, etc. It means a lot to know you guys are enjoying. Hopefully I don't disappoint!

Look forward to new updates. I try to update, at the minimum, once daily.


	7. Chapter Seven: Who We Are

"As you ladies eat I will pull each one of you back for a one on one talk. That way I can get to know you personally and we can get a feel for each other." Prince Zander spoke with an elegance and grace that was strict and very natural, for a robot. Maybe he wasn't the guy I met on my balcony last night. Last night his voice was filled with wonder and happiness. Shouldn't he be even happier now that he was in front of 35 beautiful girls who all wanted to marry him?

"But not that kind of feel!" King Maxon laughed as he sat down in his seat, giving his son a wink. It was nice to see that the King could have such personality.

When Queen America sat and Prince Zander headed for the back, taking Daisy Amber's hand to lead her back to the couch, we all sat down to begin our meals. I noticed that not even one of the girls picked up their fork, maybe they were nervous or didn't want to risk the food in their teeth. Some of the girls chatted to each other and some girls just sat up straight as a pole in their seats. From the corner of my eye I glanced at Daisy who gently had laid her hand on Prince Zander's knee and flirted with him. I rolled my eyes and went back to staring at my own food.

"She looks pretty. But she won't get far. What talents could a seven have? Also, everyone is always talking about a princess air. It's supposed to come naturally. I doubt anything comes naturally to her." I overheard the people next to me whispering to each other. Although they were leaned in close to each other I could still hear them. Maybe they intended for me to hear.

Ten other girls went before finally someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me it was my turn to go talk to the Prince.

I walked to him with my head held high, back straight, and pose perfect. I wanted to have all the confidence in the world and have this "princess air" to myself that they all talked about. But when I got the Prince I managed to trip over my own two feet. All the confidence and possible princess feeling about me slipped out underneath me as I stumbled forward. I managed to catch myself by grabbing out for the couch. I straightened up, looking nervously into the Prince's eyes who just stood watching me with absolutely no amusement in his eyes.

"Please. Sit." This was all the Prince said to me, I could hear a few snickers from the other girls. Shaking it off I sat carefully into the seat across from him. We sat their quietly for a minute or two.

"Tell me about your home life, Lady Arista."

"I have a mother and three younger siblings. We all work on gardens and yards together. We are a happy family. Tell me about your home life, Prince Zander." Something got into me, I spoke quietly and stone like. Maybe it was the feeling Prince Zander gave me but I knew now he couldn't have been the warm friendly guard I met last night. In actuality he was a stone too, a boy with no feelings. His face was sober and he seemed to be as stiff as a board. I always had the bad habit of picking up on people's moods and mimicking them. I was often told that no one would actually get to know the real me if I just copied people.

It dawned on me right then that last night I had been copying the guard too. He started it off as humors as could be and I copied him. I began to be sarcastic, quick witted, and funny. Normally was I really that funny or interesting? Or was I just trying to be someone like the guard so he would like me?

Who was I?

"And that's that." I realized I had done it again, got lost in my own thoughts. He had talked to me, Prince Zander, but I had only heard the last part of his sentence.

"Interesting." I responded, still very stone like.

"You may go now, Lady Arista. It was nice talking to you." No smile, no bow, no nothing. And I had only gotten to tell him one thing about me, I had only spoken one full sentence and our time was already up. I got up from the couch, not bothering to curtsey to him. I think Lady Odetta noticed who stood in the corner of the room taking notes and she scribbled down something, looking frustrated, as I walked aw from the Prince.

The rest of my breakfast was silent and all the girls retired to our rooms afterwards, except for 10 girls who stayed behind.

* * *

The rest of the day went by quickly, we had lessons with Lady Odetta, lunch, more lessons, and finally dinner. The royal family was absent from dinner because they were preparing for guests and discussing a recent rebel attack. Even after King Maxon took the thrown rebels continued to attack Illéa, wanting to take down the system and get rid of government all together. It seemed like people would fight over anything these days.

I retired to my room where my maids were nowhere to be seen but they did leave out a sheer night gown for me and a note that said, "Please at least get dressed into your night gown if you are going to spend all night outside again." I laughed while I read the note, it seemed like they cared more about the clothes then the person inside of them.

As I got dressed my mind still lingered on my earlier thoughts. Who am I?

I opened up the balcony to get some fresh air but the white grand piano called my name so I decided to sit down and play a few things. The keys were fresh under my fingers, soft to the touch, and the sounds was gorgeous even with the top closed on it. My long fingers glided easily along the white keys and I played anything that came to my mind. Almost all my clients had a piano and the few that allowed me inside would let me play on occasion so I wasn't to rusty on the piano.

My room filled with music until a familiar voiced chipped in, "What can't you do, Seven?" I didn't have to turn my head to know who I was talking to, I knew it was the guard.

As I continued to play I spoke to him, "I can't sing."

"Oh I highly doubt that, Seven. All musically inclined people can sing." He teased me as he came and rested he elbow on top of the piano. I didn't have to look up from the keys to see he was staring at me.

Only a moment later was he sitting next to me on the piano and he began to play a song that went along with my own song I was playing.

We spent thirty minutes in silence just playing melodies or other tunes to match each other's songs. Finally when we stopped we both just stared at each other.

"Who are you?" I finally asked him in a whisper.

"The better question is, who are you?" He looked at me with a sense of wonder and concern. It was like he was reading my deepest thoughts and asking me the question I had been asking myself all day.

Finally he let out a small grin and kissed me on the forehead and left out my balcony, leaving me on the white piano bench with nothing but my own thoughts.


	8. Chapter Eight: Mazes

I couldn't take this. I couldn't be treated like this by him! I refuse for him to act interested in me at night but play dumb and cold to me in the morning. I thought today would be different.

Twenty five girls, ten had gone home yesterday after the first interview, all neatly sat around the breakfast table enjoying food. Prince Zander had joined us today and sat laughing with the girls near him and he made his way around the table. Spending five minutes eating next to a few girls and the next five eating next to a few others. After awhile he made his way to the girls next to me and when it seemed like it was time for him to sit nearer to me breakfast time was up. Did he bother to come to me and apologize? No. He just ignored me. I could hear none other than flirty Daisy whispering to my only friend Macey, as we left the dining hall, "If he is just going to ignore her why is she still here? Why didn't she leave yesterday?"

And Macey laughed with her.

Suddenly I knew I was alone in this competition besides the guard, who was the prince but wasn't? He had the same eyes and beautiful hair. They had to be the same person unless they were identical twins or clones. I needed to find out what the prince was trying to get out here.

As the other girls walked to the grand room to enjoy yet another lecture by Lady Odetta I slipped from the crowd, making the excuse of having to use the lady's room for a minute. It was funny actually for I hadn't actually used a bathroom in the palace besides the one in my room so I actually I had no idea where I was going, which was okay. I was actually trying to find Prince Zander or a maid who would be able to send him a message.

Who I ran into was even better then a maid or Prince Zander. As I turned a corner on the first floor I ran into a familiar body and looked up to piercing green eyes.

"Well isn't that funny? Twice in a row, Lady Arista. You must have a thing for running into people." Aspen's voice was light and he smiled gentle smile to me as he bowed in my presence. I took a moment to study his face as he stood straight up. Though a kind smile and gorgeous eyes were his highlights he had many wrinkles and two scars on his face. The area around his eyes looked worn down and restless from the days of work.

"I'm so sorry. I just got lost and I should really be more careful, it's my fault." I curtsied to him like the way Lady Odetta showed us several times yesterday.

"No need to curtsey to me, Lady Arista. Where were you off to? I can probably help you find it."

I could barely make out Aspen's words for my thoughts were racing once again around in my mind which caused me distress and torment. I wanted to ask him right away how he knew my father and maybe he could send a message to the Prince or tell me if the guard at night was the prince. But then the thought kept ringing and ringing in my mind, _'Who are you?' _I was always told I was like my father, the father who ran away from my mother and allowed terrible things to happen in my life. And the person who might have some of the answers to my father, therefore myself, was standing in front of me.

"How did you know my father?" I barely managed to mutter the words out of my mouth for I felt weak to the knees. My thoughts were making me physically ill.

"Lady Arista? You look pale and not so well. Can I take you somewhere?" Aspen responded to his observations and not my question.

I reached out to hold Aspen's upper arm, "I need to know how you knew my father." I looked straight into his green eyes with my own striking blue eyes. I could see a change in his facial expressions, suddenly the smile he wore dropped a bit and his eyes grew sadder.

"Lady Arista you have a lesson to go to. But I will gladly talk to you afterwards before lunch out in the gardens." His voice had turned lower and more into a whisper so no one could hear him talking besides us two, it made it more personal to me. And all I could do was nod my head and let go of his arm. I smiled up at him and thanked him. I dipped my head in a curtsy way and began to walk away from him.

I only walked about three steps before I turned on my heels and asked him one more question, "Do you see Prince Zander any time today?"

"Yes. In fact I'm about to head to a meeting with the Prince, Queen, and King."

"Can you send him a message for me? Is that allowed? It's kind of important. I can understand if that's against the rules but-"

Aspen smiled at me and got out a pen and a small notebook out of his belt and walked over to me, handing them both to me, "It's fine. You're using your resources, I see how it is." He gave me a wink as I quickly scribbled down a note for Prince Zander.

The note read, _'Dear Prince Zander, I realize that I am only a seven but that doesn't mean your appearance will be tarnished if you are seen talking to me.'_

I handed the note pad and pen back to Aspen along with the note and smiled at him, "Thank you, once again. I'll meet you before lunch." I gave Aspen the nicest curtsy I had ever managed to achieve then I left him to return to my lesson with Lady Odetta.

* * *

Finally after a long lesson of the history of Illéa and table manners we were excused to go break before lunch. Macey tried to stop to talk to me but my feelings were still hurt from before. I figured I was being over dramatic about the whole thing, and she could have had a reason for being all chummy with Daisy, but being upset with her gave me an excuse to not talk to her and leave for the gardens.

I wish I could say my mind was totally wrapped up in the mystery guard and Aspen but as I stepped outside I felt all pressure leave from my body. The outside gardens were filled with hedges, trees, and flowers of all kinds. Flower I had never seen and they bloomed like nothing I had ever imagined. I suddenly was lost in the world of fragrance and I felt a few tears trickle down my cheek. The flowers and landscaping brought back memories of my home and I missed my family so much. I walked through the garden for a bit, finding myself in a hedge maze. It was nice to be able to relax and see the flowers instead of being the one trimming them and watering.

Lost in my relaxed and tranquil state it took me a second to respond to the arm that pulled at me and grabbed me, tossing me into one of the hedges. I felt a body press up against me and a hand cover my mouth. When I finally got my eyes to focus on who my capture was I couldn't believe it.

He was wearing Prince Zander's clothing but acted much like my mysterious guard. "Shh." He whispered to me as he looked to the right and left. Suddenly, when the coast was clear, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along in a sprint. I was about to ask him what was happening but he could sense I was about to talk, "Don't talk yet." He whispered to me as we continued to run along.

We made a right then a sharp left then ran straight for a stretch. Finally we made one last right and the hedge maze ended and opened up to a beautiful pond with a giant willow tree hanging over it. Few stone benches lined the pond and little flower bloomed everywhere. I was taken in by the wonderful sight of it.

"Now we can talk, Seven." He smiled at me, a devilish grin, and I couldn't tell exactly who I was talking to.

"Who are you?" I asked and I could he was about to say something so I stopped him, "Don't you dare ask me who I am or say some kind of sarcastic response to me, mister! I want an answer! You are the prince but you act like someone completely different when we are alone together. A mysterious guard full of laughter and life and then you turn into a cold stone, arrogant, mean prince! Who are you really?" I got closer to him as I spoke, holding my pointer finger out to him to show him I meant business.

At first he seemed a little startled but then broke out into a fit of laughter. I took a step back, not sure exactly how to react to his reaction. Finally after two minutes he stopped laughing and began to walk over to the pond, turning his back to me. He chuckled to himself before I started to talk to me, still facing away from me.

"You are one interesting girl, Seven. Yes I am your mysterious guard and yes I'm the prince. I guess one could say I have many different sides. I would like to just say I'm playing a game."

My heart dropped a bit. The first night we spent talking about our darkest secrets and life and then the second night where we played the piano together in harmony. Was it all just a game to him?

As if he could sense my distress he turned back to me and walked straight up to me, grabbing one of my hands in his and looked right into my eyes, "Arista. You are a lovely girl and no I am not ashamed to be talking to a seven. I never was. But the country expects me to eliminate you first. When I heard you playing that first night during my undercover operation as a guard, which happens a lot, I wanted to get to know you. Not as a seven and a prince but as two people. The country is telling me that you're lowly and it is out of pure luck you are here with me. I am too much like my father as I don't do well with people telling me what I should do. I took the chance to get to know you the first night but I didn't want anyone to catch on-"

I had heard enough to understand his plan, so I finished for him, "So in public you want nothing to do with me. You want to give the country what they want. But in private you want to get to know me like you will be doing with the other girls. Making the country happy and me."

When I thought I had him figured out I was suddenly proven wrong, "Arista. I favor you over all the other girls so far. Not only have I managed to get to know you the most and you have gotten to know me for me, but you also showed me courage. Do you think any other girl would corner Aspen Ledger and ask him to give me a note because they were confused? And not just any note. It was the most simple of notes and if someone read it they would have never known I have spent two nights with you. You have guts, Arista.

I am acting cold towards you during the day because everyone is looking at me expecting something and then I see you and I realize you are expecting something too, but something different out of me. You are waiting for me to be myself with you! And it scares me because all the other girls want to see what they think is the truth and the only girl who has any actual facts about me is you. And so my fear turns into a cold attitude and the country comes yelling into my head,"

Zander let go of my hand to crinkle his hair with his hands and suddenly he was talking with his hands, "you can't like her! You can't get to know her! That's what the country yells at me. But when I get you alone," He suddenly grabbed my hand again, "everything goes away and suddenly it's silent in my head."

"You are so dramatic." I teased him as I took my hand out of his and playful pushed him on the shoulder. I wasn't quite sure what to say to this proclamation; this was only my third day with Prince Zander. And it seemed to me he thought we already knew everything about each other when, in actuality, we knew very little. We did talk about our deepest fears that first night but that was the only thing I knew about him. We mostly talked about ideas, thoughts, and ways to improve the country. And we talked about the stars. He didn't know about my father and I didn't know much about his family history. Why did I feel like he was proclaiming his love to me after only three days?

"Arista. I'll try to act less cold towards you. I wanted to get you alone so I could feel the silence in my mind and explain to you where I was coming from. You are one of my favorites here. A lot of these girls are fake and scary, but you have a sense of wonder to you. The way you looked at the flowers when you first came out here," Zander began to chuckle to himself again, "you're lovely."

I smiled at him, finding some peace and less confusion. Before I could say anything else I heard from outside the gardens Lady Odetta calling out for me, "Lady Arista! I heard you came out here for break. Lunch is about to begin and you shouldn't be late."

Zander grinned at me, "Looks like you're wanted, Seven." And with that he kissed me, for the third time, on the forehead and took my hand to lead me out of the maze.

Not only did my mind now race with the new information presented to me, along with my other question on who I was, but I realized then I had never met Aspen in the gardens.

I had never gotten information about my father and who knows when I will get another opportunity this perfect?

Especially after what happened next.


End file.
